Family relationships and adaptation to spinal cord injury: a qualitative study.

To study adaptive processes following spinal cord injury, unstructured audiotaped interviews were conducted on an almost daily basis with a 30-year-old divorced male during the first 3 months of his initial comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation. Analysis of the transcribed tapes identified a number of important themes, including the theme of social relationships, recurring throughout the data. Family relationships are the focus of this article. The role of the rehabilitation nurse in promoting family involvement in the rehabilitation process is discussed.